Blinking Whirwings
by Shantari
Summary: Ron goes to the astronomy tower to pick up his forgotten schoolbag. He runs into some surprises on the way. My own translation of my fic Blinkande Virrvingar.


**Author's notes:** This is a story that I first wrote in Swedish and then translated to English. For a change of pace. It's based on a fanart I've been trying to draw, that a friend of mine had an idea for. (One day I'll try and finish it, I promise. ; ) It's one of those cute stories, that exists just for its cuteness.

**Disclaimer:** I'm not JK Rowling, I didn't copy-paste any fanfic or TV-script or published book, as plagiarism just isn't my thing. Not making money. Yaddayadda, lets get to the story already! (Oh and creature mentioned is my own idea, okay? Don't take credit for it.)

Blinking Whirwings.

Ron tried to sneak in a hurried way towards the Astronomy tower. If Percy or the Heir of Slytherin got a hold of him, he'd be dead meat in either case. The only question was which would be worse. As he entered the tower he allowed himself to remove the invisibility cloak and put it in his pocket before climbing the stairs. When he got all the way up and out on the roof of the tower, his eyes were fixed on the ground and quickly searched the whereabouts of his bag. He rushed forward and got a hold of it. But just as he turned around to hurry back again, he came to a complete stop. His earlier plan to grab his bag and hurry back to the common room was forgotten in the light of the fact that he wasn't alone.

On the other side of the roof, up on the parapet, stood a first-year from Ravenclaw. Her face was aimed upwards, and her blonde hair swaying by the wind. She looked at him and smiled. Before he could ask anything, like why was she at a forbidden place at a forbidden time, she put her finger to her lips and hushed. Then she looked up again with a wide smile, and out of curiosity so did Ron. He could hardly believe what he saw.

It looked like a whole lot of fireflies, but they were many times bigger and blinked in all the colours of the rainbow. And now that he looked at them he could also notice a slight humming sound. Immediately he thought of Blinking Whirwings, and he understood why the girl had hushed. Whirwings were shy beings that were intimidated by human voices. But… Whirwings only existed in fairy tales. Surely he had believed in them as a child, but now he was older and went to Hogwarts. He was a big boy in his second year at Hogwarts, and he was completely surrounded by Blinking Whirwings which he should know didn't really exist.

A long moment they stood like that, both of them, and just looked at all these blinking colourful lights that could not exist. Suddenly they heard steps coming from the stairs. They were about to be spotted! Ron rushed up to the girl and offered his hand. She took it, and he helped her down. Now they had to hurry, he started to dig in his pocket after the invisibility cloak, but the girl was pulling at his sleeve so he had it difficult to get it out. Finally he turned towards her to ask what she wanted, and then he saw that she was pointing at something. His bookbag! He pulled the girl by the hand towards the bag, while at the same time finally pulling out the cloak.

The door opened. Naturally it was Percy, Ron thought as he and the girl huddled together under the cloak. Which meant that if he was discovered he wouldn't just get suspended, he would get at least a dozen new howls from mum. If she was in a good mood, that was. Percy walked around and checked a little here and there, while Ron only thought about how absurd the whole thing was. Above their heads there were still hundreds of Whirwings, but since Percy didn't look upwards he wasn't the least bit aware of them. And as for himself, Ron sat and huddled with a girl he didn't know beneath Harry's invisibility cloak. Percy started to come dangerously close. If he walked in on them they would be toast, and they couldn't move too much either. They were invisible, not inaudible. Percy took another couple of steps, without any indication towards turning around. Ron panicked, and took a firm hold of the girl to pull her closer to him, while he as quietly as possible tried to pull away from Percy. His older brother was almost close enough to touch them now…

And then he turned around, and continued his perusal of the rest of the tower. Ron kept his grip on the girl, worried over the possibility that Percy would return. While Percy went from side to side, with his wand lighting up every rock, Ron looked down at the girl in his arms. She didn't look the least bit scared, and her eyes were still aimed upwards at the Blinking Whirwings. He wished that he also dared to look at them, but at least one of them should keep check on Percy he thought. After what felt like an eternity, Percy finally opened the door to the stairs and started to walk downstairs to the lower levels.

Not until after Ron had faintly heard the door at the bottom of the stairs close, did he feel that he could pull off the cloak so that they could exhale in the fresh night air. The collected heat under the cloak had resulted in their clothes clinging to their skin, and for a moment the both of them just sat and let the cold air cool them down. When Ron suddenly realised that he was still holding the girl in his arms, he immediately let go and turned around so that she wouldn't see his beet red face. She didn't seem to understand what he was so embarrassed about, and took a hold of his shoulders to turn his face towards her. With her face so close to his, her eyes exploring his, he could feel how his face just kept get even warmer than before. All of a sudden she pouted her lips, lifted her face up a bit and just like that she had kissed him on the nose.

"Thank you," she whispered, got up and walked away.

Long after that she had begun to walk down the stairs, Ron remained where he was. Partially he was in chock and partially he would rather wait until his face had cooled off before he pulled on the cloak again. When he finally came back to his senses, he looked at his watch. He'd better get back to the dorm. After a mostly uneventful trip back, he sneaked into the dorm he shared with Harry and the other boys. (Luckily, he remembered to bring the schoolbag he had forgotten to begin with.) Cautiously he slipped the cloak back into Harry's trunk, exactly where it had been lying when he had borrowed it earlier. He had felt a little guilty over having borrowed it without asking, but Harry would have probably preferred that to being woken in the middle of the night just because Ron had remembered that he had forgotten a bookbag up in a tower. At last he had changed into his pyjamas without waking the others, and could climb into bed. And then he of course couldn't stop thinking about the night's events. Blinking Whirwings and a cute girl from Ravenclaw… And a kiss on the nose.


End file.
